Regulatory Framework For Mobile Financial Services
Prof. Dr. Rolf H. Weber
Regardless of the details of a ‘mobile-money’ regime, mobile operators take increasingly part in mobile financial services, playing a crucial role in expanding the business. From a regulatory and supervisory point of view, the question must be answered whether the execution of mobile financial services is so close to a deposit-taking activity (as the provider starts acting in a bank-like manner) that compliance with banking regulation is a matter of public interest. In any case, the growing importance of mobile financial services providers implies that telecommunications regulators and banking regulators will inevitable have to coordinate their activities and share information and know-how. India would be an ideal place to become an experimental ‘legal laboratory’ tackling the difficult question of when banking regulation should be applied to providers of mobile financial services and to what extent the specificities of mobile financial services imply a different regulatory treatment. It is in the interest of both the private providers and the public to make the offering of mobile fi- nancial services a reliable, safe, and promising business that acknowledges the importance of customer protection.
